I've just gotten pretty interested in playing basketball, but I don't have the greatest build for it. I'm looking for some advice, based on my body type, on imprving a few things. a)Getting quicker b)jumping higher c)losing body fat. I want to get quicker for obvious reasons, right now I am just doing low body weights and sprints. For jumping higher, I'm doing a bike machine, lower body weights, and various jumping exercises. Any exercises you recommend? I read somewhere running decreases your vertical, so I'm sticking to biking. Lastly, I want to lose body fat, to improve on the previous two. I'm not fat, but I do have some excess fat on my thighs and stomach. I'm trying to get to a pretty low body fat, right now I'm about %18. I've just been relying on my exercises, and about an hour of shooting around and practicing each day, and I have started to eat more fruits, and have substituted all drinks (except milk with cereal) with water. Just %100 water. How am I doing? I don't expect results overnight, but a more so summer project. If you have any tips, or what I am doing wrong, please let me know. I know the quick/vertical question is such a commonly asked question, but I just wanted to know where to improve, not where to start. Thanks!

I'd look into purchasing or finding a copy of The Vertical Jump Bible, it has the information and programs to lead you into the right direction to improving your overall fitness and increasing your vertical jump. As for increasing your skills, I would do a lot ball handling and shooting drills at a high tempo(imitate game speed). The combination of weight and plyometric training will help you lower your body fat percentage and have you jumping higher. So if you google 'VJB' or 'Vertical Jump Bible' and get a copy of that, you should head in the right direction.

When you said that running will decrease your vertical leap, what did you really mean? Training like the athletes train for the olympics? Yeah, that probably would decrease your vertical leap because you're "attacking" different groups of muscles.

But hey, running by itself is a must for you espeacially when you say that you want to improve your quickness. How are you gonna do that, by lifting weights? I don't think so.

It's a good thing that you seem pretty aware of things you need to work on and you have the motivation and determination which are key in this game. In every game basically but you've certainly have seen what does will mean in the game of basketball.

For jumping higher, there are so many things to mention here. You can search the internet for some vertical leap exercises, get your hands on programs like vertical jump bible, air alert or some other ones.

You can visit my website at http://www.best-basketball-tips.com
It's all free and it covers pretty much the things that you brought up. Just make sure to not lose your sight. Keep improving and you'll make it big.